Avenrose Florist

One year on and even in these difficult Covid times Karen & her team are still producing amazing results.
Stunning birthday arrangement yet again thank you so much.
Cheers
Peter

Emma & Jared // 7.11.20

We had the absolute pleasure of hosting these two lovely souls and their friends and family on a moody November day. The grey clouds provided the most stunning backdrop for Jesse and Jessie and the day was expertly planned by Boheme Events

Check out more from this beautiful day via our stories, or on the gallery on our website 🖤

Photo: Jesse and Jessie - Wedding Photography
Video: Deerlight
Planning & Styling: Boheme events
Florist: Avenrose Florist

Happy Birthday Reay Neben. We hope you have a great day. The flowers are amazing from Karen and the team at Avenrose Florist

Getting those Mother's Day feels. Loving the Avenrose Florist board on Howick's main street ♥️

How beautiful are the latest creations from Avenrose Florist? Visit Karen down in Ricies Mall.

You've urned it!

See what I did there!

Why not treat yourself to some new cushions?

Thanks Avenrose Florist for the prop, cheers.

All cushions up for grabs.
Please PM to buy

Well yesterday I finally got to celebrate my one year in business!

Only 9 months late thanks to Covid!

I love a little Vintage Tea Party so that's exactly what we did!

Thanks to the most supportive bunch of girls for joining in the celebrations.

Vanessa K-Kraft NZ
Sarah Shop Local, Shop Howick
Emilia HandzUp Nails and Beauty
Sarah So Inspired Fitness
Andrea nectar
Pamela Elliot
Lisa Lisa Monk Photography

Flowers by Avenrose Florist
Cookies by The Cake Mixer

To all my family and friends who have supported me - a BIG Thank You xx

To my valued and cherished clients - THANK YOU for your business.
It really does mean alot to me, and it is a pleasure working with you all.

Roll on 2021 and many more years doing what I love to do.

Good old laugh thanks to Karen Avenrose Florist in Howick Village this week!

Meet the Howick Villagers:
Christine Fairclough at Cinnamon Brown Home Store

“I’ve lived in Farm Cove for thirty years and then I saw this shop come up on Instagram. I had been working at a school, and I was looking for a change and for something creative to do, but I didn’t know what. I thought ‘I love that sort of shop!’ Now I have been at Cinnamon Brown for 14 months. It is one of my proudest achievements, having the courage to have a big lifestyle change and buy the shop.

You never know who will just walk in. I was adopted as a baby, but twenty-five years ago, I found out I had a whole new birth family; seven were my full siblings, and five half-siblings. Then one day a lady came into the shop – I remembered her because she had asked a specific question about a product. I recently found out that she is my half-sister, one of four new half-siblings I have discovered, and she lives on the same street as me! It has been an amazing coincidence.

Our customers are mainly from East Auckland, but you do get a lot of people who travel. Sometimes we get people who say, ‘Oh! I have not been here before!’ and they’re from Devonport or West Auckland or another part of the city and they just come to do something different in a different shopping area. I like William’s Morris’ quote “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” This is what we try to have – I want lovely things here to buy that can be used. We also try to be eco-friendly.

We coped well with lockdown the first time it happened. We put in a new point-of-sale system and were well placed with online shopping.

I love Howick Village because it is a real community – it has a good feel and is a lovely place with a friendly, happy vibe. I was in Poppies Howick at Christmas and I saw that someone had given Tony there a generous sum of money as a gift – I can’t remember the specific amount – but he gave me $20, and said ‘Look, this man has come in and said ‘Can you give $20 to quite a few customers?’ – It was so sweet! So I passed it onto someone as my own act of kindness.

Even when I started here, people were so welcoming, like Karen Legg at Avenrose Florist and Meg at Lily Whyte - Fine Lingerie and Gifts. They took me out to breakfast in the first week of opening which was so kind as I had never been in retail before and had suddenly gone from being in a team to working by myself. We get together for breakfast once a month which is lovely. I’m so grateful that my friend Donna has joined me – she has a great visual creative eye and does all our lovely window and instore displays.

Now we have had to go back into Level 3 there is more uncertainty out there, but I am sure our great community spirit will continue. During Christmas time, and ever since lockdown, I have seen people coming in saying that they are supporting local, which is great. We will get through this together!”

www.cinnamonbrown.co.nz

Photography by Carmen Bird

Meet the Howick Villagers:
Karen Legg at Avenrose Florist

“We have owned Avenrose Florist for eleven years now, but it was a leap of faith to get started. My husband, Le Min, had been made redundant three times in three years, so when we saw this shop come up for sale, we decided to take the bull by the horns and control our own destiny. We sold our house, bought a smaller house, and bought the business.

I have always been creative. I was a teacher aid for a long time before you had to be properly trained. Then I did a floristry course during the day, and took the kids gardening after school with me. I met some beautiful people doing that and that helped us make the decision to start.

In the beginning, it was just me working here. I had to shut up the shop to go and do deliveries. Le Min went and got a nightshift job – it was supposed to be for a year and ended up being four. But it was not working, and he wasn’t sleeping, so we made the big jump and started working in the business together. We were not quite ready for it, but we made it work. He does all the paperwork and deliveries and I’m the maker and spend the money! My proudest achievement is working with Le Min and not killing each other. It's only because he’s a nice guy.

It was a hard decision to keep the business shut in Level Two. I would have had to take my friends and staff out of their bubble to help me and I didn’t want to. We took three days arguing about it, thinking “Are we letting our customers down?” In the business we’re in, you need to be talking to people face-to-face and we wouldn’t have been able to do that. Our landlord Wally Rice was amazingly supportive during that tough time. You can live off an oily rag when you have to!

It is a bit hard now, because flowers are so expensive, but we’re holding level and are okay. A lot of my regulars have lost their jobs. I’m just trying to have a balance. Fortunately, our family are fine. We’ve got two daughters – 28 and 26. One is in England, and the other has just moved back from Australia with her partner and our seven-month-old granddaughter. They have just got out of quarantine and are back living with us.

I just love Howick Village and the cafes, the parks and beaches, the water, and the boats. There’s a younger crowd moving in – my daughter will get a surprise as she hasn’t lived here for six years. It’s a beautiful place to live.

The village is humble, and I love supporting the local community because it’s giving back. I support the Howick Santa Parade. I’m so glad Bo Burns does so much to make the Parade happen.

It is the people who make it special. I have a lady who comes in every week and gives me ten or twenty dollars and says, “Give me a couple of flowers for two or four people.” She just goes around and gives them to different people every week.

I have met so many beautiful families and we build up trust with them. I find it such an honour to get asked to do a 21st, or a wedding then a funeral. I have been doing this for so long, I can listen to people and tell what flowers they will like. It is intuition, and they trust me. We’re blessed to be here, and I just love it more and more.”

Photography by Carmen Bird

Got an old stool?

Give it a coat of Chalk paint and bring it to life again with a fresh floral fabric.

It will brighten your day and someone else's.
Avenrose Florist

So many pretty choices today Avenrose Florist